The discussion of gold as an inflation hedge in this thread--and more generally in this forum and the crawlingroad blog--is interesting in light of some research published in recent years. For example, citing analysis by research firm Ibbotson Associates, the Wall Street Journal published an article...

Thanks for the comments. I appreciate it.

Really the first question to answer is " why is physical gold unacceptable?" The individual on whose behalf I am seeking second opinions is elderly and not interested in having to hold the physical gold directly, nor in having a custodian hold physical on their behalf. They understand the...

It depends on what you mean by "impractical to hold physical gold". In your personal possession, or in any place at all? The answers to your questions depend on the answer to this question. Both. Not physical gold in one's possession and not stored in some other location (e.g. safe deposi...

I'm interested in recent thinking about gold holdings. I've read the book: "The Permanent Portfolio: Harry Browne's Long-Term Investment Strategy" by Craig Rowland and J. M. Lawson, and I'd like to hear the forum's latest views on the subject. Assuming it is very impractical for someone to...

Thanks, barrett, for the reply and your comments. I'm sorry I missed the "three-asset question" from a year ago you describe. Before posting, I searched the forum and didn't find anything similar; I suppose I didn't input the right keywords.

A mid-2012 paper I read on SSRN about 18 months ago has hit the "pop" investment-economic media (with all-to-typical click-bait headline): [url=http://Opinion:%20Two%20reasons%20why%20gold%20may%20plunge%20to%20$350%20an%20ounce]Opinion: Two reasons why gold may plunge to $350 an ounce[/ur...

MG, would you share what you ultimately used for the duration of gold in your calculations? It's nothing revolutionary, but with NEM pegging its dividend to the price of gold, I realized I could just take the average yield of the gold mining industry. So, something like this? Twelve-month yield for...

Can someone explain to me in layman's terms the point of this thread? I have a good grasp of fixed income duration, but how is the idea extended to stocks and gold? Buddtholomew, here's a very general and brief overview of the idea of stock duration: http://www.traders.com/Documentation/Feedbk_docs...

MG, I'm very intrigued by your posts in this thread...particularly your latest.  I don't have "mad math skillz" either, but I'd be very interested to learn how you arrived at your effective portfolio duration for the 25X4 PP. I've been messing around with duration-based portfolio allocatio...

Worth a look: 10% small cap value index, 10% REIT, 10% emerging markets index, 25% long-term treasuries, 25% t-bills and 20% gold.  During 1972-2012, CAGR is 10.64% (versus 9.17% for 4X25 HBPP); SDEV, 7.57 (versus 7.76); worst year, -5.08% (versus -5.17%); and Sharpe Ratio, 0.74 (versus 0.53).

Are other commodities on the blacklist, cnh? In the forseeable future, we can still grow coffee and raise hogs but gold, as critics like to say, "just sits there." Mining it is a messy affair and perhaps most of it has been mined. Commodities didn't appear to figure on any investor's &quo...

Morningstar "asked readers in a recent post to our Personal Finance discussion board to share what's on their investment blacklists."  In the article summarizing the results, the blacklisted investment first discussed was...wait for it...gold.  Some readers who replied viewed it as "t...

So a month has passed.  How're you doing?

How did your dog blow out her ACL?

If you took all of the stocks that have been and will be listed in this thread and put together a portfolio consisting of 50% those stocks and 50% 10 year treasuries and rebalanced it annually, I believe most people would be pleased with the results.  That's just my intuition. Okay...it had to be a...

I would go with it completely combusted  ;D There is all sorts of speculation going on about what really happened and what was in the vault, since most think JP Morgans gold is in a different building.  From what I saw, and hearing from local friends, is that vault had some serious value in it, gol...

That said, assuming he's wrong now because he was wrong before has to be some kind of logical fallacy. I'm dwelling on the sentence above. It's interesting because it may be true (we have to look at his arguments and not only his record), but it may point at a different logical fallacy: concluding ...

I like Hussman, but you are correct. With the exception of Peter Schiff I can't think of anyone who has been more consistently wrong for the last five years on the stock market. I like Hussman too and usually read his weekly memo.  He was clearly wrong in 2009-2010, but he's acknowledged that miss ...

But what if long-term bonds hit the 0%? Isn't that the end of buy-and-hold for long-term bonds? Sure, you could hold them, but that would be kind of silly, right? And if there are situations when you have to sell your bonds, where do you draw the line? Although this may not literally be very plausi...

John is a very smart individual, no question about it.  That said, he's been wrong for so long now, that his only recourse is to continue making the same prediction until it actually turns out to be right. I like Hussman, but you are correct. With the exception of Peter Schiff I can't think of anyo...

notsheigetz wrote:

WhiteDesert wrote: Fidelity tells me that IAU closed up 3.10% today.

According to my Morningstar tracker, the PP hit positive YTD territory today.

According to mine, it remains down a bit...-0.31%.  Assume the difference is which investment vehicles we're using.

In the future, five different people will capture the entire scuffle on Google Glass. ...One of them being the shooter and the other being the shootee. Reminds me of a scene in "Minority Report."  And in that imaginary case, the resulting images were in fact a huge manipulation of the fac...

A provocative take on the future of gold as an investment vehicle: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-re ... 2013-07-17, followed by an entertaining comment string.

Libertarian666 wrote: I suspect I have the most unusual portfolio here. My allocation is roughly as follows:

gold: 70%
silver: 10%
Swiss francs: 20%
dollars: -10%
real estate: 10%

May I ask what instrument(s) you use to access the Swiss francs?